Copyright
©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Role of narrow band ultra violet radiation as an add-on therapy in peritoneal dialysis patients with refractory uremic pruritus
Ranjeeta Sapam, Department of Dermatology Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences, Porompat 795005, India
Rajesh Waikhom, Department of Nephrology, Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences, Porompat 795005, India
Author contributions: Sapam R is the main author and contributed to data recording, follow up and analysis; Waikhom R designed the study, did the literature search and contributed to the writing of the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences Institutional Review Board.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors have no conflicts of interest to report.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Rajesh Waikhom, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Nephrology, Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal East, Manipur, Porompat 795005 India. rajesh.waikhom@gmail.com
Telephone: +91-897-4007290
Received: April 25, 2018
Peer-review started: April 25, 2018
First decision: May 8, 2018
Revised: June 26, 2018
Accepted: June 28, 2018
Article in press: June 28, 2018
Published online: August 7, 2018
Peer-review started: April 25, 2018
First decision: May 8, 2018
Revised: June 26, 2018
Accepted: June 28, 2018
Article in press: June 28, 2018
Published online: August 7, 2018
Core Tip
Core tip: Uremic pruritus is a very distressing condition commonly seen in patients with advanced renal failure. Patients respond poorly to the currently available treatment regime. Narrow band ultraviolet (NUV-B) radiation is a treatment option in patients with refractory symptoms. In this study, we selected patients on peritoneal dialysis who had refractory pruritic symptoms, and used NUV-B as an add-on therapy to the standard medical care for a period of 12 wk. We found that using NUV-B improved symptoms in more than 90% of patients. However, the present regime used is not patient-friendly and compliance is poor.